Toyota, the world’s No. 1 automaker, is leaving the sport of drag racing.

Through its Toyota North America division, Toyota Gazoo Racing provides financial support, tow vehicles, engineering, technology, and trackside support through its Toyota Racing Development (TRD) U.S.A. wing to nine NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series nitro entries, and has served as the official vehicle of the NHRA sine 2014. Toyota will continue its drag racing involvement through the balance of the 2025 season.

“Our NHRA drag racing involvement has brought much success and pride across our entire organization,” said Paul Doleshal, group manager, motorsports, TMNA. “Our NHRA drivers and teams have truly become part of our Toyota family. We look forward to competing for more wins and championships with our supported teams in the upcoming season, and we will work diligently along the way to make sure each team and driver have the tools necessary to compete at the highest level for the years to come.”

Toyota’s driver lineup includes newly-crowned and four-time Top Fuel champion Antron Brown (Toyota’s winningest driver by a significant margin), Justin Ashley, Ron Capps, Alexis DeJoria, Doug Kalitta, Shawn Langdon, J.R. Todd, and Steve and Billy Torrence.

Toyota first entered NHRA drag racing in 2002, supporting the Funny Car team of Gary Scelzi. Jerry Toliver delivered Toyota its first NHRA national event victory at the 2004 Winternationals at Pomona, driving his Celica-bodied machine to the win in Funny Car. In the years since, Larry Dixon, Del Worsham, Cruz Pedregon, Morgan Lucas, and Richie Crampton have all joined the present list of supported drivers in securing wins for Toyota. Last season in Seattle, Steve Torrence notched Toyota’s milestone 200th national event victory. It has also won 12 world championships (eight in Top Fuel, four in Funny Car).

The decision comes just three weeks removed from earning the first NHRA Manufacturers Cup award in its 23 years of involvement in drag racing—during a season in which its drivers won at 16 of the 20 national events. It was also the title sponsor of the sport’s most prestigious drag racing, the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, for the first time in 2024.

“On behalf of everyone at Kalitta Motorsports, we are so grateful for Toyota’s incredible relationship with our race team over the last two decades. While we are certainly sad that Toyota will be leaving NHRA after next season, we’re thankful for all their contributions to NHRA drag racing. It’s been an honor to fly the Toyota flag since 2007 while enjoying their world-class support both on and off the race track. We’ll fly it proudly in 2025 hoping to add another championship to Toyota’s impressive NHRA resume. Even though Toyota is leaving the sport, they’re family, and they always will be,” said Kalitta Motorsports in a prepared statement.

While Toyota has chosen to take a different path in the future, it’s important to recognize and appreciate the contributions that the automaker has made to the sport. The brand entered the arena with no traditional ties to drag racing, no vehicles in its product lineup truly relevant to straight-line racing, but chose to invest what has certainly been tens of millions of marketing dollars—if not we’ll into nine figures—in a sport that needed it but who’s fanbase rarely showed the respect the effort deserved. In addition to directly supporting a dozen race teams with an infusion of money, vehicles, parts, and technology, Toyota invested in the NHRA itself, title-sponsored national events, and produced inarguably the highest quality series of mainstream drag racing television commercials in a generation. While the big-three domestic automakers were busy reeling in their drag racing expenditures (or exiting the sport altogether at times), Toyota was ramping up its investment. Only Dodge/Mopar could rival the contribution of Toyota to NHRA drag racing over the last 23 years. Let us not forget that.

How or if these teams can replace the valuable financial investment and support of a partner automaker in 2026 and beyond will remain a key question—as the domestic automakers, again, have limited their marketing involvement in the NHRA to a select few teams. Ford presently provides support to Clay Millican in Top Fuel and Bob Tasca III in Funny Car, Chevrolet to Brittany Force in Top Fuel and Austin Prock and John Force in Funny Car, while Dodge backs Tony Stewart in Top Fuel, and Matt Hagan and Cruz Pedregon in Funny Car.